Article 21: The Muslims have the right to establish political parties in order to account the rulers or to reach the rule through the Ummah on the condition that their basis is the Islamic 'Aqeedah and that the rules they adopt are Shari’ah rules. The formation of a party does not require any permission. Any group formed on an un-Islamic basis is prohibited.

“And let there be [arising] from you a nation (a band of people) inviting to [all that is] good, enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, and those will be the successfu.” (TMQ 3:104).The angle of using this verse as an evidence for the establishment of political parties is that Allah (swt) ordered the Muslims to have a group which carries out the Da’wah to Islam amongst them, and likewise carries out enjoining the Ma’ruf and forbidding the Munkar, so His (swt) saying

((وَلْتَكُنْ مِنْكُمْ أُمَّةٌ))

“Let there be [arising] from you a nation (a band of people).” is an order to create a structured group which has the characteristic of the group from amongst the groups of Muslims, since He (swt) said “from you”, and the intention of His (swt) words

((وَلْتَكُنْ مِنْكُمْ))

“Let there arise from you” is to let a group from the Muslims rise and not that the Muslims be a group; in other words, let their arise from the Muslims an Ummah, and the meaning is not that the Muslims should be an Ummah.

This is because the word “from” (Min) in the verse is for partitioning (Tab’id) and not for clarifying the genus, and the way to check is that the word “some” (Ba’d) should be able to replace it, so it can be said “Let there be [arising] from you a nation (a band of people).”, whereas the word Min cannot be replaced with “some” in the verse

((وعَدَ اللَّهُ الَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا مِنْكُمْ))

“Allah has promised those who have believed among you.” (TMQ 24:55), since it cannot be said that “Allah promised some of those who believed from you” and so in this case it is for clarifying the genus;in other words, the promise is not restricted to the generation of the companions (may Allah (swt) be pleased with them) but it is for all those who believed and did good actions.

Based upon that, as long as the from (Min) in the verse is for partitioning, this entails two issues: firstly, that establishing a group from amongst the Muslims is an obligation of sufficiency and not an individual obligation and secondly that the presence of a bloc that has the characteristic of being a group from the Muslims is sufficient for this obligation as long as the number of this bloc is enough such that it retains the characteristic of being a group and as long it is capable of establishing the action required from it in the verse. So the words

((وَلْتَكُنْ مِنْكُمْ أُمَّةٌ))

“and let there be arising”are addressing the whole of the Islamic Ummah, but they are exerted over the word Ummah – that is, the group; in other words, the request is asked from all the Muslimsand the thing that is requested is the creation of a group that has the characteristic of a group, and so the meaning of the verse is bring about O Muslims a group which will carry out two actions: the first of them that it will call to the good and the second that it will enjoin the Ma’ruf and forbid the Munkar. So it is a request for the creation of a group and this request has had the action of this group explained.

Although this request is simply an order “let there be arising”, however there is an indication which points to it being a decisive request, since the action which the verse explains this group being established for is an obligation upon the Muslims to carry out as is confirmed by other verses and in numerous narrations, and so that is an indication that this request is a decisive request and accordingly the order in the verse is an obligation. Therefore, the verse indicates that it is imperative upon the Muslims to establish a group from amongst themselves that will carry out the Da'wa to the good – in other words, to Islam – and will enjoin the Ma’ruf and forbid the Munkar.

This is from the angle that the establishment of a group that will carry out these two actions mentioned in the verse is obligatory upon the Muslims and they will all become sinful if this group was not in existence. As for the issue that this group mentioned in the verse to be established is a political party, then the evidence for that is two issues: firstly that Allah (swt) did not request in this verse that the Muslims carry out the Da’wah to the good and the enjoining of the Ma’ruf and the forbiddance of the Munkar; rather it was only requested in the verse to establish a group which will carry the two actions out and so the request is not to carry out the two actions but rather to establish a group that will carry them out, and so the order is exerted over the establishment of a group and not over the two actions. The two actions are the explanation of the work of the group, whose creation is requested, and the two actions are not themselves the issue requested, rather they are the specific characteristics for the type of group whose creation is requested.

In order for this group to be a group which is able to undertake the action in its characteristic as a group, it is imperative that it has specific issues in order to be and remain a group while undertaking the action. In order for the group to gain this characteristic which came in the verse – and that is a group that undertakes the two actions – it is imperative that it possesses what brought it about as a group and keeps it as one while it works. What makes it a group is the presence of a bond that bonds together its members such that they become a single body, i.e. a bloc. Without the presence of this bond the group whose creation is requested, in other words, a group which works according to its characteristic as a group, would not be found. What keeps the group as a group while it is working, is the presence of an Amir for it whom obedience to is obligatory. That is because the Shari’ah ordered that every group of three and more must appoint an Amir; the Messenger

“It is unlawful for three people in any barren land not to appoint one of them as their leader”(reported by Ahmad through ‘Abd Allah b. Amr), and because the leaving of obedience removes one from the group; he said in an agreed upon narration with this wording from Muslim,

“One who found in his Amir (ruler) something which he disliked should hold his patience, for one who separated from the main body of the Muslims even to the extent of a handspan and then he died would die the death of one belonging to the days of Jahiliyya.”; so he made going against the Amir a separation from the group. Therefore, the issue that maintains the group while it is working is the obedience to the Amir of the group. And these two characteristics are necessary in order to bring about the group which will carry out the two actions while it is a group, and they are the presence of a bond for the group and the presence of an Amirto whom obedience is obligatory. These two indicate that His (swt) words

((وَلْتَكُنْ مِنْكُمْ أُمَّةٌ))

“Let there be [arising] from you a nation (a band of people)” means: and bring about from amongst yourselves a group which has a bond which bonds its members together and an Amirto whom obedience is obligatory. And this is the bloc or the party or the association or the organisation or any name from the names which are applied to the group which fulfils what makes it a group and maintains it as group while it is working. And with that it becomes apparent that the verse is an order to form parties, associations, groups or their likes. As for the reality that this order is an order to bring about political parties, that is because the order is a request to bring about a specific group by specifying the action that it will carry out, and not simply any group. The verse explains the action that the group will carry out in its characteristic as a group and this explanation identified the type of group whose creation was requested;in other words, it identified the type of association whose creation was requested, since the verse mentioned: to bring about from the Muslims a group that calls to the good and enjoins the Ma’ruf and forbids the Munkar. So this is to be a characteristic for this group, and it is a defined characteristic, so the group that meets this characteristic is the one which is obligatory to be brought about, and anything else is not obligatory. As for the call to the good, or the Da’wa to Islam, then it is possible for an group to carry it out, and it is possible for a party or an organisation to carry it out. However, enjoining the Ma’ruf and forbidding the Munkar which came in a general form, is an action which can only be carried out by a political party, because it encompasses the ordering of the rulers by the Ma’ruf and forbidding them from the Munkar. In fact, this is the most important action from the enjoining of the Ma’ruf and the forbiddance of the Munkar, and it is part of this verse, since it came in a general form

((وَيَأْمُرُونَ بِالْمَعْرُوفِ وَيَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ الْمُنْكَرِ))

“enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong.”, and the Alif and Lam (‘the’) represent the genus so accordingly it is from the forms of generality. This action is from the most important acts of the political party, and is what grants the political aspect to the party or association or organisation, and makes it a political party or a political association or a political organisation. And since this action, the ordering of the rulers with the Ma’ruf and forbidding them from the Munkar, is from the most important acts of enjoining the Ma’ruf and forbiddance of the Munkar, and since the enjoining of the Ma’ruf and the forbiddance of the Munkar is one of the two requested actions in the verse which are to be the actions of the group which must be created, accordingly the order in the verse is related to a specific group and that is the group whose work is the Da’wa to Islam, the ordering of the rulers with the Ma’ruf and forbidding them from the Munkar, and ordering the rest of the people likewise with the Ma’ruf and forbidding them from the Munkar.

This is the group whose establishment Allah (swt) made obligatory upon the Muslims;in other words, it fulfils all of these characteristics found in the verse describing it. The group which has this characteristic is the political party. It cannot be argued that the creation of a group which calls to Islam, and orders the people with the Ma’ruf and forbids them from the Munkar and does not confront the rulers is sufficient to fulfil this obligation. That cannot be argued since the fulfillment of the obligation does not occur unless the group which the Muslims brought about fulfils all of its characteristics. In other words it fulfils the enjoining of the Ma’ruf and the forbiddance of the Munkar alongside the Da’wah to the good, since the attachment in the verse came with the letter “and” (Wa) which indicates participation, and because the words to order the Ma’ruf and forbid the Munkarcame in a general meaning with a form from the forms of generality - ,therefore, it has to remain upon its generality and its generality has to be fulfilled. So the obligation cannot be established unless the work of the group in enjoining the Ma’ruf and forbidding the Munkar was general, as it came in the verse,with no exceptions made. So if the ordering the rulers with Ma’ruf and forbidding them from the Munkar is excluded, or in other words, if the political actions are excluded, then the group requested in the verse is not present, and this group is not the one requested by the verse because it excluded an important action from the enjoining of the ma’roof and the forbiddance of the Munkar, and the verse came in its generality and so this characteristic is not complete unless the ordering of the rulers by the ma’roof and forbidding them from the Munkar is part of the groups actions. For this reason the obligation as mentioned in the verse is not fulfilled except by the establishment of a political group, in other words, a political party or association or organisation; that is, the group which carries out the enjoining of the Ma’ruf and forbiddance of the Munkar generally without excluding anything from it, and this is not found except with a political party or association or something that resembles them.

Accordingly, Allah (swt) has ordered in this verse the establishment of political parties which will carry out the work of the Islamic Da’wa, and the accounting of the rulers by enjoining them with the Ma’ruf and forbidding them from the Munkar. This is the angle of deduction from this verse as an evidence for the article.

It cannot be argued that this verse says “Ummah”, in other words, a single party, and that this means the absence of multiple parties. This cannot be argued because the verse did not say “One Ummah”, so it did not mention one group but rather it said “Ummah” in the unknown form and without any description. That means to establish a group is obligatory. If a single group was established then the obligation has been met, but it does not prohibit the establishment of multiple groups or multiple blocs. The carrying out of the obligation of sufficiency by one in which one is enough to carry it out, does not prohibit other than that one to carry out this obligation. And the word group here is the name of a genus, in other words, the word group is used and what is intended by it is the genus and not the single unit; Allah (swt) said

((كُنْتُمْ خَيْرَ أُمَّةٍ ))

“You are the best nation produced [as an example] for mankind.” (TMQ 3:110)and what is intended is the genus. And comparable to that are the words of the Messenger

«مَنْ رَأَى مِنْكُمْ مُنْكَرًا فَلْيُغَيِّرْهُ»

“Whoever from you sees an evil (munkar), let him change it” (reported by Muslim through Abu Sa’id Al-Khudri), so the intention is not a single Munkar rather the genus of Munkar, and there are many similar examples. So it holds true upon the single unit from the genus and also upon multiple units from that genus. It is ,therefore, permitted that a single party could exist in the Ummah, and permitted that several parties could exist, but if a single party is present then the obligation of sufficiency has been met if that party carried out the required actions in the verse. However, this does not prevent the establishment of other parties, since the establishment of the political party is an obligation of sufficiency upon the Muslims, so if one party is established and others want to bring about a second party in other words, to carry out that obligation it is not permitted for them to be prevented, since this is the prevention from carrying out an obligation, which is prohibited. Accordingly, it is not permitted to prevent the establishment of multiple political parties. This only applies to those political parties that are established upon what the verse mentioned; that is the call to the good, the enjoining of the Ma’ruf and the prohibiting of the Munkar which encompasses the rulers and accounting the rulers. As for anything else, then it has to be considered - if it was established to carry out something prohibited such as the call to nationalism, or to spread un-Islamic ideas, or similar, then the establishment of such blocs is prohibited and will be prevented by the State, with each participant being punished. If they were not established to carry out something prohibited, such as to carry out something permitted, then what is established upon a permitted basis would be permitted. However, it would not be considered establishing the obligation that Allah (swt) obligated in the text of this verse unless it was a political party which had all the characteristics mentioned in the verse.

Since the carrying out of the obligation does not require the permission of the ruler, rather to make the fulfilment of an obligation reliant upon the permission of the ruler is something prohibited, ,therefore, the establishment of political parties and their creation does not require a permit.